Monday, December 6, 2010

I know that Hershey's chocolate is no Amedei, but I know a good handful of people that will admit to stashing a bagful of these in their desk at the office. I know even more people who can relate to the often used technique of the "drive-by grab" of some of these from the communal candy dish, especially at Christmastime (oh sorry... the Winter Festival Season) when they're all decked out in their pretty foil wrappers. I know that even though I actually hate the plain Hershey's Kiss (it's a tad grainy to me - am I alone?) I didn't mind the caramel-filled ones, and really... any chocolate is better than none.

I happened to have a mixed bagful of caramel and almond-filled Kisses in my "crap to add to cookies" drawer and figured they probably should get used up before they got that oh-so-appetizing "bloom". Knowing that the whole cookie season was coming up, I figured I'd get a jump on things with a spin on the thumbprint cookie. But those Kisses are sweet - too sweet for my tastes - and the caramel ones even more so. Most cookies are the same. So I figured I'd play on the whole savoury/sweet fad from a couple years back and pair sea salt in a toothsome oatmeal base with the caramel centres of the candy. A little extra nutrition (perish the thought - in a cookie!), but more importantly flavour, came from flaxseed and whole wheat flour, and I was equally happy that I had precisely the amount of caramel chocolates I needed!

Preheat oven to 325°F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or SilPat.

In a small dish, whisk together milk and flaxseed, set aside for 10 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar.

Gradually beat in milk mixture, egg yolk and vanilla.

Stir in flour to make a soft dough.

Roll dough into 16 balls and place 1" apart on the sheets.

Press a deep impression into the center of each ball about the size of the base of the Kisses (you can even use a Kiss to do this).

Bake 8 minutes, then place an unwrapped Kiss in each indentation and return to oven for a further 5 minutes.

Cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 165.8

Total Fat: 8.4 g

Cholesterol: 14.1 mg

Sodium: 80.0 mg

Total Carbs: 21.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.0 g

Protein: 2.7 g

But to use up the almond Kisses, I had a different idea. I'd never made truffles before - truffle ganache, yes, but that got poured over a cake, and cake truffles, but they're a totally different animal. I wanted to make chocolate truffles. And I wanted to shove a Kiss right into the centre of each of them.

Knowing I was using almond flavoured chocolates in the filling, I turned to almond milk instead of the cream for the ganache, and combined ground almonds with a cocoa-y crushed bowl of Rice Krispies for a crunchy coating. It was an almond trifecta - and won the heart of my mom (who I think is hiding it from her coworkers!).